Structural Studies on Adenoviruses

Abstract

The adenovirus genome encodes more than 40 proteins, of which 11 combine with the viral DNA to form an icosahedral capsid of ~ 150 MDa molecular weight and ~ 900 Å in diameter. This chapter reviews the information that structural biology techniques have provided about the adenovirus proteins and capsid. The structures of two capsid proteins (hexon and fiber) and two non-structural polypeptides (DNA-binding protein and protease) have been solved by X-ray crystallography. Fiber and its knob have been the focus of the latest structural studies, due to their role in host recognition and conseqnently in virus targeting for human gene therapy.The current model for hte large capsid comes from a combination of electron microscopy and crystallogrphy. The resultand imgaes have revealed a surprising similarity between adenovirus and a bacterial virus, Which suggests their common evolutionary origin.